shadows of love

Laughter Over Duty

I was doing different funny dances, still even romancing the wall and rolling my butt to the music. I kept dancing around the room like nobody was watching me. When I became exhausted, I stopped the song and started jumping around while praising myself. I tried rolling my waist again while murmuring random words under my breath. I was smiling proudly at myself until I suddenly looked up.

And then there they were.

Santiago stood by the door with his mouth slightly open, staring at me in complete confusion. The others behind him looked shocked. I could tell by the expressions on their faces that they had probably been standing there for a while watching everything I did. Everyone was silent for a second.

My heart nearly stopped from embarrassment.

I covered my face immediately and started crying before rolling on the floor in shame. The moment I did that, all of them burst into loud laughter. I quickly got up and ran out of the room as fast as I could. It was honestly one of the most embarrassing moments of my life.

I locked myself inside my room for hours and refused to come out until it was finally dinner time. I even buried my face in my pillow a few times because I could not stop thinking about how ridiculous I must have looked. Every time I remembered Santiago’s confused expression, I wanted to disappear.

When I finally came downstairs to serve dinner, I tried my best to avoid eye contact with everyone. Even while placing the plates on the table, I could still hear them laughing quietly about what happened earlier. Then one of them suddenly stood up and started mimicking me.

“I’m Ivy, I know how to roll my waist,” he joked while moving his waist in the weirdest way possible.

Everyone laughed loudly again.

Another one copied the way I had jumped around the room earlier, causing even more laughter to explode across the dining hall. I wanted to hide under the table from embarrassment, yet seeing all of them smiling somehow made my heart feel lighter.

I felt full of shame, but I also felt comfort. For the first time, they were all smiling at me instead of looking at me with cold expressions. Even Santiago laughed so hard because of me, and seeing him laugh made me unexpectedly happy. At least the day did not end badly for the first time in a very long while.

Then suddenly Lorraine stepped into the dining room and landed a hard slap across my face.

“How dare you stare at my man?” she shouted angrily.

I held my burning cheek in shock and stammered, “H-huh?”

“Are you supposed to be sitting here laughing? Are you done with all your chores?” she continued while throwing insults at me in front of everyone.

I stayed silent because I was already used to being treated badly. Lowering my head, I forced myself not to cry again. Deep down, I knew speaking back would only make things worse for me.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered softly.

Everyone became silent. A few minutes ago everyone had been laughing and teasing me, but now it was all silent because of this witch, I said to myself. Lorraine stood there with anger written all over her face while I kept staring at the floor.

“She was only serving dinner,” Lily J muttered.

Lorraine scoffed. “Then she should know her place.”

I bit my lips hard, trying not to get angry. Today had already embarrassed me enough. First they saw me dancing like a crazy person, now this. I quickly continued serving the food with shaky hands.

But then Santiago stood up. The entire table went quiet.

“That’s enough,” he said calmly to Lorraine.

Lorraine blinked in shock. “Santiago, I was only”

“I said enough.”

For a moment I felt happy. It was the first time someone was defending me, especially Santiago.

Lorraine looked embarrassed as everyone watched her. She grabbed her purse angrily and stormed out of the dining hall. Everyone stared silently at each other before one of the men awkwardly coughed.

“So… Ivy still dances like a wounded chicken.”

Everyone burst into laughter again, even me. Santiago shook his head with a smile on his lips before sitting back down. And , for the very first time since I arrived, everything felt peaceful.